A little girl’s pinkish-purple pajama top with reddish-brown stains, clumps of hair affixed to tape, and tiny, thin bodies with apparent injuries — those were some of the images left with a jury at a Regina homicide trial Tuesday.

With some of the 14 jurors looking grim-faced at points and family members loudly weeping and others being warned for audible outbursts, it was a day for emotion as the trial for Tammy Lynn Goforth and Kevin Eric Goforth heard its first witnesses.

Regina police officers detailed items seized from the Goforths’ Regina residence and spoke of the state of two children taken to the General Hospital.

Const. Tyler Boynton went to the hospital Aug. 1, 2012 to photograph a four-year-old girl on life support.

“The limbs that were visible to me were very skinny,” Boynton testified.

She had an array of “apparent” injuries, including a bruised forehead and limbs, a four-centimetre by one-centimetre “red discolouration” to her chest, and “longitudinal bruising to the wrist.”

The girl, who cannot be named under a publication ban, died in hospital the next day. According to an agreed statement of facts, the girl died from a brain injury that developed after suffering cardiac arrest on July 31, 2012, “secondary to malnutrition and dehydration.”

The Goforths have pleaded not guilty to two charges — second-degree murder in the girl’s death and unlawfully causing bodily harm to that girl’s younger sister, then age two. The offences are alleged to have occurred between Jan. 19 and Aug. 2, 2012. Court heard the girls were placed in the care of the couple by Social Services.

Boynton also documented what he saw on the two-year-old’s body.

“The rib cage is fairly exposed through the chest,” he recalled. Boynton also found bruises and abrasions, including similar “longitudinal bruises around the wrist.” In addition, the child had what appeared to be a burn mark to her left index finger.

Boynton was asked a single question on cross-examination by defence and agreed the name on the two-year-old’s hospital bracelet was not the same one as has been stated in court. It can’t be stated because of the publication ban.

In other testimony, Const. Garth Fleece said he was requested to search the Goforths’ house and specifically seek items that may be used as restraints and that might correspond to the children’s apparent injuries.

In the basement, Fleece took note of a slatted, white storage rack affixed to the ceiling. A black cargo strap, about a half-inch wide, hung down from it. Fleece noted a strand of dark hair stuck in a buckle.

On the floor below the rack were pieces of silver duct tape, plastic and green painter’s tape. Fleece said a large amount of hair was stuck to the tape.

In the kitchen of the four-level split, Fleece took note of a box in which he found small, pink pyjama pants with duct tape adhered to the inside of one leg. A stained, two-piece pyjama top was also in the box.

Gallery: Goforth trial evidence

A reproduction of a photo entered as an exhibit at the Goforth trial. It shows a storage rack from which a cargo strap hung in the basement of the Regina home where Tammy and Kevin Goforth resided.

A reproduction of a photo entered as an exhibit at the Goforth trial. It shows green painter's tape with strands of hair found in the basement of the Regina home where the Tammy and Kevin Goforth resided.

A reproduction of a photo entered as an exhibit at the Goforth trial. It shows a knotted pink piece of fabric with hair entwined in it as found in the children's bedroom at the Regina home where Tammy and Kevin Goforth resided.

The clothing, as well as cardboard found in the children’s bedroom and in an outdoor garbage, were sent for further testing. Fleece told the court he suspected the stains were a mixture of blood and feces.

On the door to the girls’ room were bright, crayoned pictures, but it was the white string tied to the door knob that caught Fleece’s attention.

Inside the room, where there were two bunk beds covered in plastic sheets but no cloth bedding, Fleece seized a piece of neon pink cloth, knotted in a loop, with a clump of dark hair entwined in it.

Fleece’s overall impression of the bedroom was that it was “sparse,” but in cross-examination, he admitted it also contained some toys, colouring papers, and the walls were decorated with colourful images of giraffes and butterflies.

It was also on the wall where Fleece found a red spot, and collected a swab for the lab because he suspected it was blood.